“This is a superhero story for the post-punk era: Live fast, die young, and take over the world.”—Kirkus Reviews

Marvin Maywood only wants one thing in life—to join the heroes of the Core. But he can’t follow his dream because his powers are fed by fear, which is against the Core’s standards. So he lives on the streets and watches the elite team of costumed crime fighters from afar.

After Marvin performs an illegal act of heroism, he meets Roisin, one of the Core’s heroes, and it seems like his chance to join the team has finally come. As she guides him through his tryout, he starts investigating some strange happenings within the Core. And when Marvin realizes that the idyllic hero life he imagined is a mask for the ugly reality lurking beneath it, he becomes caught in a corrupt web of secrets, lies, and death.

I have always been fascinated with the concept of magic. Fairy tales and science fiction have always filled my bookshelves, and I have favored stories that emphasize characters that have ordinary lives, but have extra-ordinary abilities. As a child, I would read and re-read these tales, convinced that there was something more, something hidden... read this article